Why is there a blue dotted outline on my layer?

A blue dotted line around a layer is a visible indicator that a bitmap layer is selected. It can appear in the following instances:

• On line art layers created from importing bitmap images.
• On any art layers that were set to bitmap during creation.
• On any art layers that were converted to bitmap after creation.

Why are the dotted lines only on bitmap layers?

Harmony’s drawing space is vector by default, this means that the space around the camera is quite large due to the nature of vector art’s optimized resizing. Bitmap images use a pixel by pixel format for their display. This means that bitmap image quality is reliant on things like layer resolution and size, and they also tend to be much heavier than vector artwork. 

Therefore a canvas area is important when working on bitmap layers. This allows you to define the resolution and size of your canvas based on the needs of the bitmap artwork.

The blue dotted line indicates the edges of the canvas. Anything inside the dotted blue lines can be drawn, erased, or edited, but artwork can’t be created beyond it. It is possible to change the size of the canvas if a bigger area is needed, see Set the Bitmap Resolution for more information.

How do I get rid of the blue dotted line?

You can remove the blue dotted line by converting the art layer to vector. However, take note that existing bitmap artwork on the layer will not be vectorised during conversion, but rather contained within a vector bounding box. See How do I convert a layer to bitmap or vector? for more information.